A Houston man sentenced to life in prison in 1986 walked out of jail today pending further investigation of the DNA evidence that put him away for aggravated kidnapping in the abduction and rape of an Alief woman more than 20 years ago.

Innocence Project lawyers for Ernest Sonnier won the 46-year-old's release on a personal recognizcance bond pending further investigation, a move that was not opposed by the Harris County District Attorney's Office, spokeswoman Donna Hawkins said.

DNA testing over the past 18 months implicated two convicted felons as the actual perpetrators of the 1985 crime, said Alba Morales, the Innocence Project staff attorney handling the case. He said the organization has conducted nine rounds of DNA testing since March 2008.

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Standing in fron of the Harris County jail, flanked by friends and family, Sonnier said he spent years watching news accounts of innocent men who were freed and always wondered the same thing: "When's my turn coming?"

Today was the day.

In a hearing this morning, state District Judge Michael McSpadden ordered Sonnier's release while the legal process of exonerating him moves forward. He was freed early this afternoon.

Sonnier is prohibited from contacting the new suspects or the victim. His supervised release means he must not use any drugs or alcohol and will be monitored by GPS, which will be paid for by the district attorney's office.

About 20 family members attended the hearing, including his mother Altha Davis and 92-year-old grandfather, LeeRoy Lewis.

In a statement released by the Innocence Project, co-director Barry Scheck called Houston “ground zero” of a national epidemic of faulty forensic science.

“This case is the latest in a well-documented and disturbing pattern of analysts making misleading interpretations to support the prosecution's case and explain away evidence that defendants may be innocent,” Scheck said. “There are still thousands of cases from the Houston Crime Lab that need to be reviewed, and that needs to happen quickly. In many ways, Houston is a symptom of the root problem, which is a lack of national standards and oversight for forensic science.”

To date, four men convicted in Harris County courts have been released from prison after faulty crime lab work on their cases was uncovered. A fifth has been released pending a final hearing.

The investigation and report, which cost $5.3 million, exposed possible problems with numerous cases and prompted calls for the creation of an independent regional crime lab.

Sonnier's case began on Christmas Eve 1985, when two men approached a woman at a gas station in Alief, forced her into her car, threatened to kill her and began driving toward San Antonio. The men took turns raping the woman during a seven-hour drive. Early the next morning, they stopped the car and the victim escaped.

Although two men committed the crime, Sonnier was the only person charged. He was convicted a year later and sentenced to life in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Prosecutors on Thursday said they had talked to the victim about Sonnier's case but declined to discuss her response.

Previous exonerations stemmed from flawed forensics, conditions at labs and backlogs of cases that were never tested.

In Sonnier's case, his lawyers laid the blame squarely at the feet of the analyst in the case and the prosecutor who handled the case, former District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal.

“This is another example of an analyst giving an interpretation that is slanted towards assisting the prosecution's case that is misleading, that omits certain important factors,” Scheck said. “At the time of the trial, it's obvious that the prosecutor wants a certain answer because on the face of it, the evidence is exculpatory, but they come up with something that isn't written down anywhere and is misleading.”

First elected district attorney in 2000, Rosenthal resigned last year.

He said Thursday he did not remember the facts of the case nor did he have any recollections about trying it.